Parallels encourages service providers to focus on value-added hosted applications and services such as social media presence, content management and online customer relationship management (CRM) tools.

The company estimates the Chinese SMB cloud services market for the traditional hosted services at US$640 million and the Indian SMB cloud services market at US$123 million in 2011.

Parallels also estimates the Japanese SMB Cloud services market for hosted infrastructure and Web presence services to be US$795 million and the Australian SMB cloud services market for hosted infrastructure, Web presence, and hosted communication and collaboration at US$478 million in 2011.

Internet infrastructure proliferation

Internet infrastructure is set to proliferate in the Indian and Chinese markets over the coming years and according to Parallels, several SMBs in these nations will forego buying and maintaining in-house IT infrastructure and instead adopt cloud services and applications.

Both Japan and Australia boast strong IT infrastructure and service providers can look forward to tapping these SMB markets for cloud services that are forecast to grow by 75 percent or more over the next several years.

Parallels note that eventually, SMB markets for cloud services in these two countries will match the cloud adoption levels in Europe and the U.S.

"SMBs in Asia Pacific, like much of the world, are rapidly realising the value of embracing cloud and other hosted services," said John Zanni, vice president of service provider marketing and alliances of Parallels. "The introduction of Parallels SMB Cloud Insights for Asia-Pacific provides a new perspective on the business value of cloud services in the region, and we are confident the specific market insights we provide will enable service providers at any level to profit from the cloud in Asia Pacific."